Committed leadership: a prerequisite for successful implementation of recovery during the workday

The aim of this study was to explore the role of managers and employees with an assigned responsibility (i.e. inspirers) when integrating recovery-enhancing activities into everyday work in a primary health care setting.

The possibility of recovery during the workday is essential for employee wellbeing. However, the literature on workplace interventions focusing on recovery is scarce. Especially with regard to the importance of local driving forces, like managers and inspirers.

Two focus groups and two individual interviews were conducted in this qualitative interview study. In total, ten managers and inspirers from different primary health care centres were interviewed about their experiences of brief recovery interventions at their workplaces. A semi-structured interview guide was used, and the qualitative analysis was conducted by using systematic text condensation.

From a leadership perspective, two themes with promoting factors for recovery interventions were identified. These were structural promoting factors (including authorisation, communication, and integration) and cultural promoting factors (including attitude, support, and open-mindedness). This knowledge can contribute to future workplace environment development with the focus on recovery during the workday. The results also showed several positive effects of integrated recovery, both on an individual and group level. Hence, this study is a valuable addition to the work recovery research, in terms of understanding the importance of investing in recovery at work.